1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of pre-fading blue jeans, particularly on a commercial scale, while avoiding the development of unwanted streaks or other indications to the effect that the blue jeans have not become faded through normal wear and repeated washings.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To the best of the knowledge of the applicants, there has not been known, before the present invention, any satisfactory procedure for making commercially pre-faded blue jeans that are free of unwanted streaks. Satisfactory, unstreaked, suitably faded blue jeans have hitherto been obtained by repeated washings. Attempts have been made to produce and market blue jeans having a proper and acceptable faded look that were, in fact, new garments, but the results, in terms of avoiding the appearance of unwanted streaks, have always, according to the applicants' knowledge, been unsatisfactory.
The particular chemicals used in the practice of the present invention (detergent, emulsifier, fabric softener, bleach, and laundry sour) are each, of course, already known per se. What has not been known, in accordance with the prior art, was how, in accordance with the present invention, they could be used to achieve the commercially desirable result indicated above.
It can also be taken as known that commercially available fabric softeners are of the nature of quaternary ammonium compounds, materials which are, in effect, positively charged, i.e., they hydrolyze on the basic side. At the same time, it has been known that the bleaches are negatively charged, i.e., they hydrolyze on the acidic side. Those skilled in the art of chemistry have known that it would therefore be usual to avoid the use of any treatment in which both fabric softener and bleach are caused to be present at the same time, because the two kinds of material are to be expected to cancel each other out.